Richter is one of the most influential masters in contemporary art. He was born in Dresden, East Germany in 1932 and studied painting at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. After he moved to Düsseldorf, West Germany in 1961, he worked as a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy for over 15 years. In 1997, he received the Golden Lion at the 47th Biennale, Venice. Richter currently works in Cologne.

Richter employs outstanding techniques for his works; photo-painting in which he traces photographs from newspapers or magazines on a canvas and then blurs them, color chart painting where he composes an artwork with a systematic pattern of colors like a color chart, gray painting which he covers a canvas all with gray paint, abstract painting in which he creates layers with repetition of painting and scrapping, and other technique like using a hundred glasses to reflect the surrounding scenery. His exploration to express the bridge between abstraction and embodiment within the field of painting has been admired, and that has made the contemporary art scene, the world over, consistently watch his works and remarks.

In 2013, his work Domplatz, Mailand was sold for £24 million ($37 million) at an auction in New York. This is the highest auction price ever paid for a living artist.